There are conventionally known terminal devices provided with a liquid crystal display or other display and a touch panel disposed so as to cover the display unit, as typified by a smartphone, wherein a directional pad or other virtual operation key such as that used in games is displayed on the display, and the display of other characters displayed on the display can be controlled.
For example, Patent Reference 1 (JP2011-034538, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference) indicates that when an operation button for instructing the direction of movement of a character displayed on the display is displayed and a user makes finger contact at a desired position on the touch panel corresponding to the operation button, a command corresponding to the position is generated to control the movement direction of the character.